Goal: School Sports For All

Kids Who Don't Make The Teams Need Other Active Pursuits, Board Member Says.

September 19, 2003|By Scott Travis Education Writer

You shouldn't have to be the star quarterback or head cheerleader to thrive in sports, some School Board members say.

They want to see elementary students participate in recess and physical education more frequently. Middle school students should get to play intramural sports, where tryouts aren't required. High school students who aren't athletically gifted should be able to consider sports management, broadcasting or public relations.

School Board member Monroe Benaim is pushing the ideas, saying he has heard from many parents unhappy with the sports opportunities available for kids in Palm Beach County schools.

"Children try out for teams, and then they show up to see if their name is on a list," Benaim said. "If they didn't make the team, they feel rejected, and there isn't any outlet for them."

Benaim also wants the district to provide professional development to coaches and teachers on how to help students learn sportsmanship and rejection, if they don't make the team.

The ideas have support from Superintendent Art Johnson and several other School Board members, and some already are in the works:

A School Board committee is looking into ways to help deal with childhood obesity, and that may include adding more recess, P.E. classes and intramural sports teams to county schools.

The Palm Beach County Sports Commission has started intramural wrestling, kayaking and table tennis leagues throughout the county. Three programs are based in schools, including a table tennis program that started this year at Loggers' Run Middle, west of Boca Raton. The commission has a partnership with the U.S. Olympic Committee to offer up to 15 Olympic-style sports in schools, youth clubs and parks throughout the county. County commissioners have given the sports commission a $175,000 start-up grant for the programs.

Palm Beach Gardens High School has offered a sports-management magnet program for the past nine years. It serves about 100 students. Johnson is looking at expanding this and other career academies into other parts of the county. He said Santaluces High School, west of Lantana, or Boynton Beach High School could be candidates for sports academies as soon as 2005. He plans to release details of new career programs, including costs, by December.

Stacy Shapiro, a junior, is enrolled in the sports academy at Palm Beach Gardens High. She's busy organizing a golf fund-raising event for her school.

Eventually, she would like to manage a Major League baseball team.

She said students in other parts of the county should have similar opportunities.

"It's a really great program. It's very hands-on," she said. "You learn a lot of skills that you'll eventually use later in life."

She would like to see more intramurals and other sports opportunities for students who can't make their varsity teams.

Career-oriented sports programs are becoming popular in high schools, said Jan Bell, coordinator for sports administration at St. Thomas University in Miami. Schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have just added sports academies in the past few years. She's glad to see students taking an interest in sport management in high school.

"When they get to a four-year school, they'll know what they want to major in and know what to do with their degree," she sad. "And they'll be more apt to work in the field."

Benaim said he would like to go beyond just duplicating Palm Beach Gardens' program. He would like to integrate sports into the communications program at Dreyfoos School of the Arts, so students could learn sports broadcasting. He would like to see W.T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens teach the financial aspects of sports as part of its finance academy. And even the culinary program due for the high school west of Boca Raton, which will open next year, could teach students about sports nutrition.

"The sports industry is an extremely large business," he said.

Pam Gerig, executive director of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission, said she believes such programs might be appealing to athletes, as well as those who don't make the cut on their favorite team.

"A lot of kids who play sports have an allusion of grandeur, that they're going to be an Olympian or professional sports person or general manager of a club, and they get knocked down real quick," she said. "I think they would gravitate to these type of activities."

Scott Travis can be reached at stravis@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6637.

CAREER ACADEMIES

Career programs offered by the Palm Beach County school district and the schools where they are offered. Programs at South Tech are to be moved next year to the new schools west of Boynton Beach and west of Boca Raton.

Air conditioning, heating and refrigeration: South Tech, Inlet Grove, Royal Palm Beach